Conventionally, when a user wants to access a service provided over a mobile network operated by a mobile network operator, he/she operates his/her User Equipment (UE) to send a service request, including a requested QoS, to a service control entity of the operator. In response to the service request, the operator may authorize the requested QoS to the service or reject the service request in accordance with the user's subscription with the operator. Alternatively, the UE may not explicitly include the requested QoS in the service request. In this case, the service control entity of the operator may autonomously determine the QoS to be authorized to the service based on a predetermined policy, e.g., the user's subscription with the operator and/or parameters derived from media contents requested by the service request.
With the prevalence of various internet applications and Machine to Machine (M2M) applications, mobile network operators have gradually transitioned into traffic pipe providers exposing their network capabilities to third-party SPs (also known as “Over The Top (OTT)” SPs).
When a user wants to access an OTT service provided by an OTT SP, he/she operates his/her UE to send a service request to the OTT SP. Upon receiving the service request, the SP, having a subscription with the mobile network operator, may request the operator to provide a particular QoS capability for the service on behalf the user.
In this case, it is desired by the mobile network operator to develop a QoS control mechanism for handling such request from the OTT SP.
In addition, the user may also have his/her own subscription with the mobile network operator, which may conflict with the QoS capability requested by the OTT SP. For example, according to the user's subscription with the mobile network operator, the mobile network operator will provide a maximum Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) of 1 Mbps to the user, whereas the OTT SP requests a GBR of 2 Mbps for the service to be provided to the user.
There is thus a need for an improved QoS control to handle the QoS capability request from the OTT SP and to solve the above conflict, if any.